Once Lost Lords (Royal Scales, Book 1) (39 page)

“All of them,” Evan said.

I stared at people of all races, wolves, vampires, and humans. What
was it that caused issues? Add in the fact that elves delivered the
blows then all four races were somehow responsible for my race’s
extinction.

“Stay safe, Evan.” It was time to go.

“You will protect us, Lord. I am confident. It is what you do.”
He sounded tired, but at least the elf was conscious again. Maybe he
had taken a short nap. “If you choose to.”

“You make me sound like an angel.” It was hard to be
quiet, almost pointless to bother.

“I can say what you are not, Lord, and you are nothing so
noble.” The male elf sounded amused for once in his depressive
life.

“A demon then?” Religion was one of the few items still
intact. The Purge could never manage to censor every Bible out there.

“To some.” Evan still sounded vaguely amused. Both eyes
narrowed at him and I nearly missed his faint smile. The elf shook
his head back and forth in a negative. Hell. He did have a sense of
humor.

Daniel would leave with his precious box of goods. Evan and the rest
of the group would be safe. Afterward, I could figure out what do
with Kahina.

What was Daniel’s angle by holding all my possessions hostage?
He should believe me about Arnold’s dead body, yet he still
marched. He knew it would make me mad. He knew and pushed on. Was he
trying to pressure me into something besides Arnold?

Everyone else was huddled in a gathering of war. Except me, I needed
space. My presence would contribute little to the efforts. I didn’t
try to sneak away, but I didn’t advertise either.

Softly treading feet from behind told me that someone was following
already. Only two feet touched the ground so it was humanoid.

“Boy.” A western twang let loose.

I turned to look at the silver-haired elf. We had never talked
directly. The old man had the distinct look of having been in these
woods for the last hundred years and was probably less social than
me.

“Boy, I brought that box along.” He shook the wooden
container and it rattled around.

“Why do that?” I asked.

“You talked about telling your partner to shove the box
sideways, seemed like a good plan. Figured you’d headed off to
do that.” The old elf shrugged and ran a tongue along the
inside of his lip. “Might solve this here standoff, then you
and them hens will shut it and pull out.”His hair looked thin
and ghost-like in the darkness, but what I could see of his face was
serious. He rattled the box again in my direction.

“They know you grabbed that?” I asked.

“Won’t matter one way or another. Figure one way, you’re
shot, another way, we’re all in clear. That or we do things the
hard way.” The elf spat on the ground and pulled something out
from a pouch. It smelled like bitter chewing tobacco.

“You think it’s worth a try?” None of the wolves
had been on board with my plan. They appeared intent upon preparing
for a wide-scale war.

“I reckon.” The elf’s voice was out of context with
the woods around us.

“You know where Daniel is?” I took the box from his hand.
That freed the elf up to get his bow strung. His motions were well
practiced and calm.

“I can figure which ride’s his, sure,” He might
have said. The accent made it difficult to clearly understand.

“And how do we get Daniel’s attention?” I hoped the
elf had an answer for that too. My option was to stand there
menacingly against a squad of armored people. It couldn't be that
easy.

“Just saddle up and ask. Doubt they’ll shoot you, what
with you having what’s left of their precious heir.” He
said while picking up his bow and testing the sight a few times. The
results must have displeased him because he scowled, spit and
proceeded to tighten the string.

“What do you know about that?” I stared down at the box’s
top again and tried to figure out what a snake with wings had to do
with everything. I had never seen a creature like this before.

“Nothin’.” He sounded firm. Hell. Evan wouldn’t
like me punching his grandfather.

The old elf would probably put an arrow in me anyway. My arm had
recovered, but he had additional ammo readily available. A day’s
worth of healing had reduced a bleeding wound to scar tissue.

“Come on. Your partner’s close.” The silver hair
cowboy sounding elf stalked off.

“What are you going to do?” I turned and promptly went
after him. Elves usually forgot the rest of us had to avoid branches
and trees.

“I’m the cover if things go south,” He said.

There was a quiver on his back with dozens of arrows. If he stayed
hidden until an escape was needed then perhaps we could dent Daniel’s
men. Or maybe I would be a pincushion by the time I tried to do
anything.

Daniel would hopefully be happy with the box, but I honestly doubted
it. There was no reason for him to march in here with so many people
when I, and the stupid remains, would have walked out in a day or two
once the wolves got an all clear.

We traveled through the woods at a high speed. Every so often I could
see the older elf shoot ahead. He would stop and look around. Each
time I nearly stumbled right into him.

“Been searching for ’em by way of those beams. My boy
says they run them around as they travel.” He said after our
most recent near-collision.

“Yeah,” I responded. Evan had told me that too.

“Figure I’d set up here ’bouts.” He pointed
up into one of the trees. I looked but couldn’t figure out how
the old elf expected to get a clear shot on anything. In the
distance, there was rustling which made the elf bolt up. “They’re
close. You wander over, ask for your guy and make the offer.”

“And you’ll be watchin’ over me?” Hell. His
accent was contagious and I was poorly imitating it.

“Like you were my own.” He didn’t even notice the
slip. I was happy with his answer, though. The older elf seemed
effective with those arrows.

I grabbed at his arm before the old man could keep walking. He glared
at my hand then rolled the chew in his cheek around to the other
side.

“Why the about face?” I asked.

“Like I told that little girl, we all do what we need to when
you’re protecting your own.” The old elf’s head and
silver hair fell around his face. “You all tried to help. To
save that child’s dream. I didn’t know or I wouldn’t
have treated you all so rude.”

“What if someone hurts what’s yours?” I asked him.
My friends, those who I claimed were in danger from Daniel’s
little gathering.

He let out one of those single syllable laughs before answering.
“There’s always good old fashioned revenge.”

We walked towards the sounds in the distance. It sounded like a car
or van with a loud engine idling. Thoughts of how to approach Daniel
kept coming into my mind and falling apart.

Would I be willing to hurt Daniel if my things were damaged? It was
just stuff, right? No. It was more than stuff, it was all mine, what
little I owned in this world. Kahina and Evan included in a strange
sort of way.

A few more trees stood between us and a set of lights in the
distance. Evan’s grandfather stopped traveling with me and
rapidly climbed up a nearby tree. His body managed to avoid making
more than a whisper of noise that was drowned out by the giant
armored vehicle in the distance.

“Shh,” He whispered to me. “He’s headed over.
Don’t know how he found us. Go. I’ll watch your back.”

There were four sets of lights bobbing in the distance, two of them
could easily be attached to some sort of guns. A clever man would
have found the time for a quip. Sector weapons came with different
types of bullets for every situation. Only a brief flip of a switch
and they’d issue a different type of death for every race. Not
that it took special bullets to take me down. At least I used to
think it didn’t.

The lights drew closer. Both the flanking guns stepped out slightly
to the sides and took beads on me. A third light scanned the darkness
around in an attempt to see if I was alone. Brightness made it
difficult to see who was facing me.

Both my hands went up in the air, slowly. The only thing I carried
was a wooden box that felt increasingly heavy. No weapons, no utility
belt or shoe gun.

“Crumfield,” I said. There was a vague outline in the
distance that seemed like my friend.

“Jeff.” I heard his voice come back. He was using my fake
name, not something he commonly did, at least not without a hint of
mockery. Daniel’s voice was professional and calculated.

“Got your dead whatever here.” The box rattled a little
bit as I shook it. Hell. Ashes don’t rattle.

The fourth figure that I could make out hissed. Not a vampiric hiss,
just an irritated human sucking in air. Daniel was positioned behind
the newest person, almost subservient.

“Look, the deal was to bring you Arnold. You asked me to track
him, here he is.” I said loudly.

“Mister Crumfield, is this your asset?” The fourth man
said. He had a lisp that came with heavy weight.

“Yes, sir,” Daniel answered. Slowly my eyes adapted to
the intense lights. There were a few emotions passing across Daniel’s
face. Anger? Irritation? Loathing? They were such brief flickers that
it might have been imagined.

“And you vouch for this man?” The heavyset person asked.

“With my life, sir.” My friend answered.

“That’s what you’ve placed on the line. Go get the
little box and see if it’s real.” The heavy man waved a
large meaty arm that barely had any contrast from the surrounding
darkness.

The other two lights were still locked on me. Part of me crossed my
fingers in hopes that every story told of elven archers over the
years were accurate. Their addictions were just a way of evening out
the unfairness of their eyesight.

Daniel got closer and reached out an arm. “The box, Jeff.”

“Here,” I responded while giving him the box. Hopeful
restraint prevented me from telling the agent to bend over first.

“This is all that’s left?” Daniel asked quietly.

“So the story goes,” I said.

“You checked it yourself?”

“No. Evan says it’s Arnold’s ashes,” I
answered while wondering why the hell we were whispering. The volume
cue was easy enough to pick up from Daniel, but it didn’t make
sense.

“What are you two mumbling about over there?” The
heavyset man wiggled the fourth flashlight in our direction.

“One moment, I’m checking out the box,” Daniel
answered while sliding the box around. Inside something solid could
be heard, like an uneven marble tumbling around. Both his eyes
glanced down to the lid of the box, and on it was a completely
different image than before.

I squinted and tried to make out the new picture. Previously there
had been a serpent of some sort. Now it was a hooded human shape. A
cowl covered the face’s top half. Robes draped down with an
intricately carved trimming. One of the figure’s hands was
behind his back, a stylized nub and blade protruded out opposite
sides.

I looked at Daniel in confusion. Both of his eyes were peering
directly into mine and the barest hint of a smile etched across his
face. I knew that look. He was ecstatic and trying to hide it.

“This is perfect, Jay,” He whispered quietly. “This
is it. From here we can really get started.”

“Is it Arnold?” The fourth man’s voice grew more
annoying every time his mouth opened.

“I’m sorry, man. Don’t shoot the messenger.”
Daniel’s voice was still quiet. My eyes glanced down at wooden
carving of a hooded figure. That blade behind the back had to mean
something important.

“What the hell, Crummy.” I tilted my head slightly and
started shaking it back and forth. Why did the box look different?
What was he sorry about?

Daniel backed up quickly to the fourth man. They were still hidden
behind those intense lights. My friend, the Sector agent, was into
something shady and had gone stone-faced.

“No. It’s a fake.” He said.

“WHAT THE HELL, CRUMMY?” I exploded with anger at the
person who acted like my friend. “I got you your stupid kid!”

“He’s not stupid!” The fourth man yelled back. “He
contained our only hope as a race!”

“Sir?” Daniel’s voice was hard to hear over the
blubbering leader of this little group. The larger man sounded like
he was having a meltdown.

“Do it. You warned him, we warned him. If he couldn’t
recover the heir then there’s a price.” He blubbered
while waving an arm accusingly.

“What the hell, Crummy!” I leaned over and there was a
click from both the men with guns. It made me freeze while imagining
just how quickly they could fill me with holes.

“Here you go, sir.” Daniel was speaking to the heavyset
man. The two exchanged an item of some sort. My former friend shut
off his light and there was a hint of a grin hanging in the near
darkness.

“We told you. Told you that failure was not an option.”
The fourth guy shut off his flashlight too so I could see what he was
holding. “This is the trigger for all the wired explosives
lining your little home.”

I started forward to try and tear the trigger away, but a quick
series of warning shots destroyed the ground in front of me. Both
guards had their weapons leveled back up in my face with their beams
of light. Putting up an arm didn’t help block out the
brightness.

Hopefully, Evan’s grandfather was prepared to put an arrow into
these two. Quickly.

“One last chance, Jeff.” With two lights gone I could
confirm the fourth man was indeed heavyset. He was older with
formerly black hair fading to gray. “Tell us where Master
Regious is, and all your little knick-knacks will be spared.”

“Please tell him, Jeff, I can’t stop him from pressing
that trigger if you don’t,” Daniel said.

Kahina was right. The warning letter had also pointed the finger
elsewhere. Was it this man? He was using Daniel, and Daniel in turn
was using me. I slowly focused, pushing past the lights, pushing past
the worry and honing in on the heavyset man.